Charleston City Council approves plan for Sumar Street

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Charleston city leaders voted Tuesday night to approve their plan for the vacant Sumar Street site. It includes retail, residential, and green space.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, we’re excited about the proposal. We see even more opportunities to make it even more accessible for folks – particularly people biking, walking, utilizing transit, and a gathering space where people want to come to spend time; affordable housing is a big part of that as well as making sure we have dense mixed-use places where people can afford to live,” said Savannah Brennan, the Director of Programming at Charleston Moves.

Charleston city councilmember William Tinkler, who represents West Ashley, has spent a long time working on the plan approved Tuesday night. The project is the largest private investment in West Ashley with developers, Eden’s, putting $300 million into the project.

The current plan is for the city to invest $44 million.

“It’s going to include retail, some restaurants, about an acre of community central green space and some indoor community space for the city to use,” said Tinkler.

City council has kept the public involved in the plan with many agreeing this is the best option.

“For the most part, the public support has been pretty overwhelming. Most of the emails and phone calls I receive are from people who are tired of empty space and ready for something big,” said Tinkler.

Development at the site likely to begin early in the new year.

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